Bendigo CRT Network

Pages

ABOUT US

The Bendigo CRT Network began in October 2008 with the support of the Victorian Institute of Teaching. The Network provides an avenue for Casual Relief Teachers and those on Family Leave to access up-to-date and relevant Professional Development. The sessions also provide an opportunity to meet regularly with other CRTs. The Network IS NOT an EMPLOYMENT AGENCY, it is for PROFESSIONAL LEARNING ONLY.

Tuesday, 1 January 2013

Welcome to the Bendigo CRT Network blog, yes someone found/remembered the sign in details. Now all only have to up date the content. Please bear with me as it is a few years since the blog has been updated so hopefully will soon get the hang of it again.

Michael
Ymer PD _ AusVELs & Mathematics.

Once again Michael presented a day of fun
learning. The first session we looked at
AusVELs document. This is the document
that will influence the curriculum for all states over the next few years. For a government document it seems surprisingly easy to navigate.

The afternoon session was again an exploration of practical hands on activities to use in the classroom. Among those were card games, some variations on previous activities that demonstrated how they could be adapted to engage all ability levels within a class. As always Michael was very generous with his time and handouts.

Monday, 3 September 2012

Georgina Pazzi from Edumazing certainly Engaged, Educated and Amazed us on Friday February 10th.
The first activity that Georgina had us take part in was to create something that we felt represented us in Playdough, so at 9 am a group of CRTs were eagerly creating 3D sculptures. Then we shared the reasons behind their creations it was great. The creations were set aside for use in a later activity. Each table was given a group name - Smart Bunnies, Sparklers, Glow Worms etc the same as if they would work in a classroom rotation. The Activites were very hands-on - using Ipads, Ipods, IWBs, felt story boards - to engage the students (us) and it worked. Not everyone was au fait with the use of some of this technology but we all got to play, which for many of us is our preferred way of learning, and work through some activities that are used with students in the classroom.

Tuesday, 10 January 2012

Thank you to every one who attend this PD at Discovery Science and Technology Centre. First I must apologise to those who didn't get the change of date, I thought that I had notified everyone but obviously I didn't.

The day started with Emma, the Outreach Education Officer introducing us to slowmation and showing some examples produced by students, which obviously terrified us as to their level of competence with the programme. We then chose one of the scientific explanations to demonstrate using SAM Animation software, not as hard as we thought. Problems presented were Why is the sky blue? Why does chocolate turn grey and is it still safe to eat? and Why does the room spin when you are drunk? The process for creating the animation was surprisingly easy, although some of us had very ambitious ideas - some of which worked and some failed gloriously.

After lunch Emma demonstrated some of the experiments and strategies she uses with students to encourage them to explore what happens through Predict, Observe and Explain. The sealed bottle experiment was a challenge. Then it was into the Planetarium for the show of the night sky, although I think a few of us may have dozed off for a little while. This was truely amazing and if you haven't seen it I can recommend it. Finally we watched a Mythbusters experiment, elephants fear of mice, which demonstrated their scientific approach to an experiment, how they accounted for possible variables and how their results reflected on their hypothosis. A big thankyou to the discovery staff for a very infomative day.

Sunday, 9 October 2011

As you may be aware the VIT is introducing MyVIT. This will be an area on their website where you can keep track off all your relevant information. If you haven't received any information on this site don't worry as it is being rolled out slowly. Your login will be your VIT registration number, then you must create your own password and security questions. Once you are fully registered you will be able to add information on PDs. In future PDs registered on Pdi will be given a number which will be given to you once you have attended the PD you have registered for, then you will be able to go into MyVIT and enter the number. Network PDs that are not advertised on Pdi and that you have attended are entered under Teacher Identified PD, but please keep all your notes and certificates as this will be your proof should you be audited. The Network will continue to provide certificates of attendance for all Professional Development sessions that it holds.

Tuesday, 4 October 2011

Science is probably something that we don't think a lot about when we are called to step into a classroom, but as we found out there some amazing resources available from the Discovery Science and Technology Centre in the form of Science in a Suitcase. What a fantastic idea and some great topics to chose from, among them Mini beasts, Dino Detectives, Criminal Investigations, Kitchen Science to name a few. Emma, our very enthusiastic presenter for the night is the Outreach Education Officer at Discovery, she explained what the Centre has to offer for teachers and students and let us not only explore some of the kits but have a wander around the centre and try the activities.
The suitcases or containers hold everything that a teacher needs to explore one of the topics including physical resources, experiments and activities. On the night we had fun exploring some of those kits - Rockets, Mini beasts, Dino Detectives (just hope the students are better at putting the small dinosaur models together better than we were). Hopefully in the future we may have the opportunity to explore more that Discovery has to offer.